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Emojis are now part of our language. If you’re like most people, you pepper your texts, Instagram posts, and TikTok videos with a few small images to augment your words – maybe a syringe that absorbs a little blood when you got vaccinated, a prayer (or high) —five?) Hands “thank you” shortcut as a pink cheek smiling face with jazz hands, to get a secret hug from a distance. Today’s emoji catalog includes nearly 3,000 illustrations depicting food from emotions, natural phenomena, flags, and people from different stages of life.
Behind all these symbols is the Unicode Consortium, a group of non-profit hardware and software companies that aims to read text and emoticons and make them available to anyone. Part of the goal is for languages to look the same on all devices; A Japanese character must be typographically consistent across all media, e.g. But Unicode is probably best known for being the gateway to emojis: releasing, standardizing, and accepting or rejecting new ones.
Jennifer Daniel is the first woman on the Unicode Consortium’s Emoji Subcommittee and a strong advocate for inclusive and thoughtful emoji. It was initially dominated by the introduction of Mx. Claus, an alternative to the genre including Santa and Mrs. Claus; a non-gendered person breastfeeds a non-gendered child; and a masculine face bearing the veil of the bride.
Now, the emoji has a mission to take the pandemic to the future, making it as expressive as possible. This means taking on an increasingly public task, which is in its popular and enjoyable Substack newsletter. What would Jennifer do? (examines the design process for the emojis that come in there), or invites the general public to present concerns about emojis and to speak if they are not expressive or specific.
“There’s no precedent here,” Daniel says of his work. For Daniel, this is amazing, not only for him, but also for the future of human communication.
I told him how he sees the future of his role and emojis. The interview has been lightly edited and summarized.
What does it mean to head an emoji subcommittee? What do you do?
It’s not sexy. [laughs] He is managing a lot of volunteers [the committee is composed of volunteers who review applications and help in approval and design]. There is a lot of paper. Lots of meetings. We meet twice a week.
I read a lot and talk to a lot of people. I recently spoke with a linguist to find out how people use their hands in different cultures. How to make better hand emoji gestures? If the image is not good or not clear, it is a dealbreaker. I am constantly doing a lot of research and giving advice to different experts. I’ll talk on the phone with a botanical garden about flowers, or a whale expert to get the whale emoji out well, or with a cardiovascular surgeon so we can have the anatomy of the heart down.
There is an old essay by Beatrice Warde on typography. He asked if the good font was a fascinated or transparent glass. Some would say it is decorated because it is very elegant, and others would say a glass cup because you see and appreciate the wine. With emojis, I give myself more to the “transparent crystal cup” philosophy.
Why should we care how our emojis are designed?
My understanding is that 80% of communication is verbal. There is a parallel mode of communication. We will write about how we talk. It’s informal, it’s free. You are taking the step of breathing. Emojis are shared along with words.
When the emojis first appeared, we thought they were distorting the language. Learning a new language is very difficult, and emoji is like a new language. It already works with the way you communicate. You evolve as you evolve. The way you communicate and present yourself evolves, just like you do. You can see almost 3,000 emojis [their interpretation] changes according to age or gender or geographical area. When we talk to someone and make eye contact, you change your body language and that is emotional contamination. It builds empathy and connection. It allows you to reveal that about yourself. Emoji can do that, all in one image.
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